Tradespeople in 19th century Eastrington

Boot
& shoe makers (and parish clerks)

The picture below shows 'Blind Harry' (Harry Wiles) making doormats
on the left, and James 'Jimmy' Ellis standing on the right.

In
1823 only one shoemaker was listed in Eastrington, James Brownbridge.
By 1840 Mr Brownbridge was listed not as a shoemaker but as the
landlord of the Cross Keys. The three men who were listed then as
boot and shoe makers were Henry Collins, John
Wilson and Thomas Eccles, who also kept
a beer house.

Thomas Eccles

Thomas Eccles had married Ann Collings at Eastrington in 1824 and
by 1841 was living with his wife Ann and children Hannah, 15, George,
14, Thomas, 10, John, 7, Sarah, 5 and James Collings, 1. Also living
with them were William Pashley, 29, who was also
described as a shoemaker and James Cowling, aged 17, an apprentice.
Then in 1847 the vicar, Rev. Hamerton, writing in the charity accounts,
said that he had allocated the 'dole' money of £1 a quarter to James
Brownbridge in compensation for removing from him the job of parish
clerk. He had given the job instead to Thomas Eccles who by 1851
described himself no longer as a shoemaker and beerhouse keeper,
but solely as parish clerk.

William Pashley was born in Asselby. In 1841 he was lodging
with Mr and Mrs Eccles but in 1842 he married Hannah Bulliment who
was ten years younger and born at Thealby in Lincolnshire. By 1851
had three young children and also three lodgers: Thomas Burn, a
farmer; Michael Chapman, a soldier from Ireland and Henry Bulliment,
who was probably related to Mrs Pashley since he too was from Thealby,
and who worked as a farm labourer. William Pashley was still working
into his eighties. He died aged 84 at the Union workhouse in Howden
and was buried at Eastrington in October 1893.

Henry Collins

Henry Collins, shoemaker, was aged 46 in 1851 and born in Howden.
His wife, Ann, was from Ellerker. He died in October 1861 and their
son, also Henry, died the following May aged only 19. On the gravestone
on the north side of the churchyard are the poignant words, 'Fret
not for me my mother dear, My sins are all forgiven, Just in my
bloom I was cast down, Prepare to meet your only son in heaven'.
Mrs Collins made a living as a dressmaker and also seems to have
brought up her young granddaughter, Ann Elizabeth Jackson, who was
10 in 1871.

John Wilson

John Wilson was a native of Eastrington.
In 1851 he was 63 and living on his own in the village. Living a few doors away was John Barker, who was also described
as a shoemaker. John Barker was aged 47 and living with his
wife Ann and their son John, who was 13.

George Ellis and John Ward

The youngest shoemaker in 1851 was John Ward, aged only 19. He was
living at the mill with his aunt Margaret who was married to John
Stather. His mother was Agatha Ellis, nee Ward, and both Agatha
and Margaret were the daughters of Martin Ward, a farm worker and
his wife Jane who herelf was a daughter of George Wise Nurse. Agatha
had given birth in 1831 to John (Ward) and another son, George Tock
(Ward) in 1837. Then, two years later in 1839, she married George
Ellis, a shoemaker, and they had three children, William, Jane and
Robert Ellis, before George died aged only 33 in 1848.

In 1851 Agatha Ellis and her family were living in the poor houses near
the brickyard. Her son William, who had been only eight years old when his
father died, carried on his father's trade but the family were poor. Writing in 1865 to his brother in Canada, George Nurse (Agatha's
cousin) said, 'As for W. Ellis, with is marrige he is very badly
off, scarce a shirt to put on is mother saide. She add been been
mending is old shirt ... forced to put a blew sleeve into a wite shirt'.

Poor young William Ellis himself died in 1868, aged only 28, and his
mother faced further tragedy when her eldest son John, who no doubt
too had learned his trade from his stepfather and whose own wife
had died in 1867, himself died in 1869 leaving two children, Margaret
and George, aged nine and five. They were brought up by their Great-Aunt
Margaret, by then a widow, who made a living by dressmaking. The
number of men employed as shoemakers declined so that by 1881 there
were only two men still working - these were Mr Pashley and John
Barker, both then in their 70s.

Tailors

There seem always to have been one or two tailors making a living
in the village during the nineteeth century. By 1840 Thomas Wilson
and James Young were listed and, by 1851, James Young and George
Wilson.

James Young, then 56, was born in Crowle but his wife,
born Mary Collins, was born at Blacktoft Grange. They had lost two
young daughters, Mary aged 9 in 1838 and Maria aged 16 in 1847,
but their youngest daughter Elizabeth, aged 17 in 1851, was living
at home. James Young also had an apprentice, 14-year-old Bentley
Hill. Young Bentley fell in love, as was often the case, with
his master's daughter, Elizabeth, and they married in 1865. Bentley
then set up in business on his own. James Young was by then a widower,
looked after by his teenage grand-daughter Mary Broughton. Her mother,
Hannah Young, had married a Samuel Broughton of Kirkstall (Leeds)
in 1850. James Young died aged 80 in October 1874 and within a few
weeks 20-year-old Mary had married Thomas William Holmes.
Their son James was baptised the following February. Bentley Hill
seems to have prospered, employing two apprentices in 1871 and by
the 1890s briefly occupying Bennett Lodge. He was a church warden
and, as such, his name is inscribed on a plaque on a chair in the
church made from old oak. He lived until 1927, dying at Howden aged
89.

George Wilson was from Eastrington and aged 29 in 1851. Also living in
the village at this time was Thomas Wilson, described as a pauper but a tailor
by trade. It seems likely that this was George's father, who was
listed as a tailor in 1840. George Wilson did not prosper and by
1871 was an inmate of Howden workhouse.

Another village tailor, who combined tailoring with several other
occupations, was William Barrow.

Blacksmiths

The earliest references to a particular Eastrington blacksmith
concern one Henry Thomas, an eighteenth century villager
who was arrested in 1756 for taking part in the militia riots and
who a few years later was charged at the Beverley
Quarter sessions with breaching the Eastrington pinfold along with William Smith. The full
story will never be known but he appears to have certainly been
a man of principles. He was married to Ann Wainman and their only
son, Robert, was also a blacksmith. Robert married Sarah Swan[n] and
most of their descendants eventually moved to South Cave.

In the nineteenth century members of the Ainley family were blacksmiths.
Some family members emigrated to Canada and the Ainley family is dealt
with in more detail on a separate page. In 1823 the blacksmith was
John Jackson who was renting land opposite Elm tree farm from John
Ainley.

Another family working in the centre of the village as blacksmiths
were the Pittock family, whose
details can also be found on a separate page.

By the end of the century Mr John Mays
was the blacksmith and lived with his family in the first house
on Howden road on the corner opposite the blacksmith's shop (which
itself was in what is now a corner of the Black Swan yard). He was
31 in the year 1891 and had been born at Faxfleet. His wife Mary was from Seaton Ross and
they had five children and employed 12 year old Emily Parker (born
in Ryder) as a servant. The family had previously lived in Kirkella near Hull. John Mays was
a keen churchgoer and his name appears as churchwarden on a chair
in the church made in 1888. The family suffered a tragedy in January
1896 when their seven year old daughter Edith died from 'catarrh
of the windpipe'.

Bricklayers
and builders

For much of the nineteenth century Francis Stephenson and
his son Joseph were the village bricklayers. In 1835 when the church
vestry was repaired, for example, Francis Stephenson was the bricklayer
employed. He was born in Eastrington around 1798, one of the eleven
children of Francis and Elizabeth Stephenson (nee Youll, and had
married his wife Jane, who was from Adlingfleet, at Whitgift in
1819. They too had a large family - 12 children - although by 1841
only five seem to have survived. Son George was married and living
in the village and working as a bricklayer, and Charles, Henry,
Ann and Joseph were at home. By 1851 only their daughter Ann, aged
20 and a dressmaker, was living at home with her six-month-old daughter
Caroline as well as her 16-year-old brother Joseph.

In 1852 Ann Stephenson married Robert Lilley. By 1881 Joseph Stephenson,
46, master bricklayer, was living at Filbert Grove, while his brother
George and his wife Jane, 61, were living in Couper Street, Goole.
He and his sons were all bricklayers and a grandson, George Denby,
7, was living with them.

Later in the nineteenth century David Sherbourn worked
as a village bricklayer.

Wheelwrights
and carpenters

In the nineteenth century the wheelwrights and carpenters in the
village were all descendants of the nine children of John and Elizabeth
Thompson (nee Bletcher). Members of the family also
married into the Nurse family and
all three families had branches who emigrated to Canada and settled
in Ontario.

Grocers

There seem to have been from two to four grocer's shops at any
one time in the village in the nineteenth century. Their exact location
is hard to trace as often the shop was little more than a shelf
or two in a house. However, the main shopping area of Eastrington
for many years has been in the centre of the village in the premises
on the south side of the High Street.

In 1823 William Belt and John Holmes
were listed as shopkeepers.

Robert Belt and his wife Mary, with their son John had moved to
Eastrington from Skelton in 1753. Robert was a weaver and was one
of the local men arrested and imprisoned at York for taking part
in the militia riots. His son John Belt had a house and garden in Pinfold
Street and had a large family including Betty (b.1780) and William
(b.1786). William Belt, who went on to marry Ann Padget, kept a little shop but
by 1841 he still described himself mainly as a linen weaver. The
couple had ten children, two of whom emigrated to America. William
(b.1821) and Thomas (b.1825) travelled first to Indiana, then
moved to Sacramento and then, sometime in the 1850s, William travelled
to Australia to the gold rush in Bendigo, Victoria. He worked on
the goldfields until he made enough money to buy a property at Runnymede,
which is near Bendigo. He built a house, became a successful farmer
and built the Catholic Church in the town of Runnymede which was
named after his wife, Bridget Belt [information from from his
Australian descendant Lorraine Schmidt with many thanks].

John Holmes was renting two cottages and garden in the centre of
the village owned by Joseph Lowther in 1822 about where the present
village shop is today. By 1840 there was no mention of them but
Robert Fielder and Thomas Wood were described as the
village shopkeepers. Thomas Wood's shop was in the centre of the
village. Mrs Sarah Wood was a widow by 1851, still in business as
a grocer aged 74 but with her daughter, Mrs Hannah Beecroft, staying
with her.

Robert Fielder was a grocer and draper and lived in one of the
shops in the centre of the village, probably adjoining the present
garage premises. He was originally from Airmyn and Mary, his wife, was
from Kelfield. Mr Fielder's young niece, Elizabeth Morfit, who later
married John Ainley, lived with them as a house servant. Mrs Fielder
died in 1853 but Mr Fielder, who was also a Methodist local preacher,
kept on the shop.

By 1880 Robert Thomas Nurse (see Nurse
family) kept this grocer's shop, renting it from Joseph
Cox who owned property in Gilberdyke. In 1880 two field girls from
Hull were charged with stealing two pairs of leather gloves, value
2s, the property of Thomas Nurse, shopkeeper of Eastrington. They
came into the shop on 28th August at 10.15 in the evening. He was
serving one with bread and cheese when the gloves went. A witness
saw them get the gloves and soap out of the shop window. However
Robert Thomas Nurse did not stay there long. By 1885 he had moved
out and new tenants came to the grocer's shop. John Swale
was from Elland and he and his wife Emily had formerly lived at
Accrington and Gomersal where John was a linen draper - Eastrington
must have seemed very different from their former homes.

In 1871 one of the grocer's shops in the middle of the village,
next door to Mr Fielder, was kept by Thomas Holmes who described
himself as a grocer as well as a flax and teazle merchant. By 1881 his
son Thomas William and his wife Mary and their growing family were
running the shop but by 1891 Thomas Holmes had given up groceries
and had taken over his father's hay and straw dealing business.

Next door to Thomas Holmes in 1891 were George and Mary Jipson and their children. George
Jipson was originally from Newport but his wife Mary, 40, had been
born in Eastrington. The family were living at what until very
recently was still the village shop. Mr Jipson described himself
as a farmer while his wife was described as a grocer. Their sons Thomas, 18, and Fred, 16, were both described as farmer's sons. Their other
children, Lizzie, 14, Arthur, 10, Hannah, 8 and Sidney, 5 were
all still at school. Their eldest daughter, Clara, had died in October
1888 aged 19.

Butchers

In the first half of the nineteenth century Matthew Tate
was one of the village butchers. At other periods there were Charles
Jepson in 1840 and William Leaper in 1841. However, by
1851 Mr Leaper and his family had moved to the more prosperous town
of Goole.

Robert Lilley was born in 1827 at Old Bolingbroke in Lincolnshire,
the son of Joseph Lilley, a bricklayer, and his wife Martha. It is
not known when Robert came to Eastrington but he married Ann Stephenson
in 1852 at St Michael's Church in the village. Ann's father Francis was also a bricklayer
and it seems likely that the families met through this connection.
Two of Robert Lilley's brothers also moved to the area: George Lilley (b.1833)
died in Eastrington of diphtheria in 1860, leaving a wife Mary (nee
Jackson, born Sandholme) and two daughters. Another brother, Edward Lilley (b.1829), married
a girl from Bielby and lived in Bubwith with his wife and large
family, working as a gardener.

Robert Lilley, who described himself as
a cattle dealer, and his wife Ann lived at first near the brickyard and then
in the 1880s moved to North Howden where Robert also had a small
grocer's shop. They had nine children including sons George (b.1858) and Joseph (b.1861). In 1882 George married Annie Ellis at
Howden Primitive Methodist church. By 1891 George and Annie were
living in Eastrington, George working as butcher while his brother
Joseph was lodging at the Black Swan and working as a gardener.
George and Annie had 13 children although not all survived beyond
childhood: Joseph died aged two in 1899; in 1900 their daughter
Jessie died aged 14, and the following year young Teddy died aged 12.

The Lilley family were well known butchers at Eastrington and Hull
market throughout the twentieth century and intermarried with many
existing village families.

Edwin Hairsine was both butcher and farmer in Eastrington
in the 1870s before moving to Skelton. He and his wife Hannah kept
the butcher's shop attached to the south end of the manor house,
later run by the Holmes family.

George and Annie Lilley and two of their children,
with their butcher's cart outside the Black Swan in Eastrington

Policemen

There have been police officers stationed in Eastrington since
early in the nineteenth century, generally staying only for a short
time. In 1891, for example, PC David Alden, originally from
Norfolk, was living at the 'police constabulary' somewhere on Vicar
Lane with his wife and family. However, several Eastrington men joined
the police force such as Joshua Fenton who lived for a time
in Amethyst House with his family. His father owned a threshing
machine and had a large family. Young Joshua was briefly a pupil
teacher at the village school before joining the East Riding police
in 1894. He left the force in 1906. Other local men in the force
were Richard Parkin, whose father worked at the station and
George Holt who joined aged 30 in 1891 and left in 1900.
There were also families like the Longs who were posted to Eastrington
and settled there after retirement.

PC John James Long

John Long was born in Goodmanham and joined the East Riding force
in 1885, the same year he married his wife Lydia. He served all
around the East Riding - Beverley, Wetwang, Filey, Flamborough - until
coming to Eastrington in 1903. The family stayed in the village
after his retirement in 1912. His wife Lydia often acted as the
local midwife and for many years was the Eastrington correspondent
for the Hull Times and caretaker at the village hall.

Several of their children - Claudine, Arthur, Charles, Herbert Gibson,
George, Olive, Florence, Gwen, Mildred and Reginald - remained in
the area although, sadly, 19-year-old Herbert was killed in the First
World War. PC Long died in 1927. Charles Long built the house at
the corner of Sandholme Road and Pinfold Street and lived there
with his mother and sister Mildred (Millie) and her son Cyril.